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Source: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/watch/Peacewatch/peacewatch2004/467.htm
Assessing the Current Challenge to Arafat
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) David Makovsky - The fact that the movement against Arafat is driven by his former supporters, rather than by Israel and the U.S., gives it particular potency. The breakdown of law and order in the West Bank and Gaza has arisen amid Arafat's unwillingness to follow the first phase of the Quartet Roadmap for peace, which calls for the PA to place its security services under the control of the prime minister and interior minister. According to his colleagues, Arafat believes - as other Arab rulers do - that he would risk being toppled if he shared security authority. Even if the scope of the opposition appears deeper than it has in the past, one should not underestimate Arafat's various techniques for withstanding challenges to his authority. The writer is director of the project on the Middle East peace process at the Washington Institute.